Clarke: we will stand up to Lords

The government will hold out against repeated House of Lords attempts to amend bills on ID cards and terrorism, the home secretary, Charles Clarke, said today.

Mr Clarke was speaking ahead of two votes in the Commons on the terror and ID card bills, both of which are being repeatedly volleyed between the two parliamentary chambers as peers take issues with government proposals.

Mr Clarke vowed to face down dissent as the government was forced to rely on the Conservatives to clear the first hurdle on the education and inspections bill last night.

Parliamentary "ping-pong" continues today as the government seeks to overturn two recent defeats in the Lords over its ID card and terror bill.

The government will ask MPs to overturn the House of Lords' efforts to thwart plans to introduce a new offence of "glorification of terrorism" from the terror bill this lunchtime.

The government suffered an unexpected defeat on plans to make glorifying of terrorism a crime last week when the Lords voted for a third time to remove the measure from the bill.

Peers voted by 160 to 156 to defy a Commons vote in favour of the proposal, despite an official Conservative attempt to help the government get the law passed.

A separate challenge follows when the ID card scheme returns to the Commons after peers last night voted down for a third time proposals to automatically place anyone applying for, or renewing, their passport on the national identity database.

The government is determined to ensure the link between ID cards to passport applications and renewals remains.

Mr Clarke sought to shrug off last night's rebellion over the education bill as a "fact of life". He insisted that the revolt, and the Labour funding row did not herald the beginning of the end for Mr Blair. 52 Labour MPs, half of the original number of rebels, voted against the bill, which was passed with a majority of 343.

"There have been a number of bills, including a number for which I have been responsible, where rebellions of that kind have existed," he said.

"That actually is a fact of political life in the modern era."

Issues such as reform or public services, civil liberties and party funding "have recurred throughout the whole period of this government" and were no reason for Mr Blair to step down, he said.

"That is part and parcel of what a reforming administration does," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"There will be opposition to those reform proposals. Now that is perfectly understandable - it is not wrong - but it is a fact of the political circumstance in which we live."